The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Genesis 1:2b
I imagined my paddle held high as I whacked an alligator across his head. His skin was leathery like whacking an old beat-up suitcase. Then I thought about those enormous teeth.
About that time Sam asked again, “So where do you want to kayak? Tibbee or Buttahatchee?”
“Buttahatchee,” I said. “I don’t feel like fighting alligators today.”
We arrived at a beachy area; it was noisy. Upriver there was a party going on, beach, beer, and bikinis. We put our kayaks in near the boat launch and headed downriver. Just around the bend we entered a different world.
There was a good easy flow with a slight headwind. Temperatures had dropped into the 80s. An occasional narrowing of the river created a couple of small rapids. A short ways down, the old channel took a turn to the left so we followed.
Sam was reminiscing when he and his father had put the fishing boat in at the same place. “Had to be over 50 years ago,” he said. “I think we were supposed to be squirrel hunting but I don’t remember shooting anything. Maybe we were just scouting for fishing holes.”
Up in the slough we saw a couple of small gray squirrels. “Maybe it was squirrels,” I said. “Maybe,” Sam answered. We moved along slow, all was quiet.
The water was swampish looking and sunlight was scarce. Huge cypress trees flanked the banks of the river. From the roots of the cypress tree large nodules called knees rose skyward. It’s uncertain the exact purpose of the nodules. Support and buttressing trees growing in mud and silt is the most probable answer. Hurricanes rarely overturn them.
The cypress knees were plentiful; they mostly grew in “families.” Their “heads” were rounded off and that’s what they looked like…families clinging together moving toward the water.
It was mesmerizing and eerie all at the same time. The Spirit hovering over the water came to mind as did the legend of the Yuchi Indian maiden singing over the waters of the Alabama shoals. Why did they all seem to move toward the water?
There was one very large knee, as big as a person. He appeared to be sitting and on his lap was a child. At least that’s how it appeared.
In 1963 Louisiana named the bald cypress its official tree. The tree became the symbol of southern swamps. I can see that. I saw it that day.
Cypress knees have been used in artwork and lamp-making. The knees sell on EBay for $15-$20. I can’t imagine harvesting the knees who live quietly on the river.
The river hosts bass, crappie and bream also crayfish and mussels. It was once home to the Gulf Coast strain of walleye and perhaps the frecklebelly madtom, both have virtually disappeared. Maybe from channelization; maybe from the increase in largemouth bass.
The Buttahatchee is 125 miles long from Winston County, Alabama to forming the lower boundary between Monroe and Lowndes counties then flowing southward into the Tombigbee River.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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